Gillian Keegan's husband, Michael Keegan, is a crown representative to the Cabinet Office, managing cross-government relationships with BAE Systems as a strategic supplier to the Government.
He was also for 12 years from 2006 a senior executive at Fujitsu, ending up as CEO and Head of Technology Product Business, having previously spent some time working at the Post Office.
Perhaps it's just me but a senior executive from a company intimately involved in the worst miscarriage of justice in English history and one of the biggest IT fuck-ups ever would not be on my short list of persons seeking to manage relationships with anyone, let alone a strategic defence supplier.
Why Fujitsu is still getting government contracts is a mystery…
I thin the paragraphs preceding that last sentence go some way to providing the solution to that mystery.
And is it a chummy spivocracy, or a spivvy chumocracy ? Or just a plain spivocracy.
It looks like the Great House Price Slide is gathering pace. Today has seen quite a few of the houses at the top end of our budget all getting reduced on RightMove/Zoopla, some by 15%. We actually nearly put an offer on one of them last month that wasn't far off what it's up for now but it was just too close to a busy, noisy road. Glad we didn't now! It's made me even more convinced to wait a while longer. I feel like a vulture waiting for a wildebeest to kark it, but them's the breaks.
Readers might be interested in the contrast with Irish refugee policy. The Irish government appears to have weaponised its own stupidity and incompetence in order to create outcomes for refugees that are arguably even worse than those the British Tory government has been able to implement while talking much less sympathetically.
The Irish government talks a good talk about its responsibilities towards refugees, but it is now turning to tented accommodation for refugees in a big way this winter, including women and children, and despite insisting that prior use of tents was only a short-term measure while it made other arrangements. However, it appears to be so unable to build more houses, that it's now going to put large numbers of refugees into tents for the duration of the wet and windy Irish winter.
Gillian Keegan's husband, Michael Keegan, is a crown representative to the Cabinet Office, managing cross-government relationships with BAE Systems as a strategic supplier to the Government.
He was also for 12 years from 2006 a senior executive at Fujitsu, ending up as CEO and Head of Technology Product Business, having previously spent some time working at the Post Office.
Perhaps it's just me but a senior executive from a company intimately involved in the worst miscarriage of justice in English history and one of the biggest IT fuck-ups ever would not be on my short list of persons seeking to manage relationships with anyone, let alone a strategic defence supplier.
Why Fujitsu is still getting government contracts is a mystery…
I thin the paragraphs preceding that last sentence go some way to providing the solution to that mystery.
And is it a chummy spivocracy, or a spivvy chumocracy ? Or just a plain spivocracy.
It's the way that government works - the system likes big companies. They make better partners.
Blocking big companies from government contracts is never popular in the system. There were cries of joy when Arthur Anderson were taken off the black list, where Thatcher had put them.
It's not fair to blame GK for any of this. But since when has politics been fair?
A scape goat is going to need to be sacrificed soon, to take the heat off Rishi.
It will be bad news for Labour and the Opposition parties if Concrete Crisis brings down Rishi Sunak. A replacement as PM and HomeSec from moderate wing the party (Hunt PM, Penny HomSec) and 12 months talking about tackling unfair privilege in country today and being a government of aspiration and reform would save 50-100 Tory seats imo.
It’s funny how Concrete Crisis can work out so good for the Tories, if it helps them replace Sunak.
Remainer Hunt replacing Leaver Sunak as Tory leader and PM guarantees a doubling of the RefUK vote and risks near wipeout for the Tories
This one post from you sums up your whole mistake right now HY.
In this electoral situation you arguing Tories need to be Reform and Brexit fixated.
I am explained the exact opposite to you, a position you should adopt. Chasing Grey Wall, Brexit voter and Reform voter gets you 28% tops at next General Election. You are actively ushering in a political sea change by decimating your return of MPs.
50-100 MPs can be saved, a far better Proportion of vote by going in the opposite direction. So many leave voters want a sane, convincing safe pair of hands PM right now, reform minded voters want a Tory HomSec who can get a grip, and there are millions of voters you are just handing to Labour, who would be just as happy to keep in an aspirational Tory government intent on reform.
You are misreading the political mood of the country. The Tories can be in a much better place switching to aspiration and reform, rather than chase UKIP and Reform voters.
Completely agreed!
Brexit is done, finished with. Anyone still obsessing over it, either way, is an absolute loon and should be disgarded.
What matters is aspiration and reform.
What matters more is that the Tories have abandoned aspiration and reform.
Anyone who regards Brexit as finished at a time when major customs procedures have to be established, with unknown effects still to be seen, isn't showing the most elevated critical faculty, on the other hand.
Why?
The procedures don't have to be established, that's kind of the point of being an independent, sovereign nation - we choose what procedures we have in place, nobody else.
If the procedures don't make sense for us, then we shouldn't have them.
They do need to be there. HMG admits that. They also, effectively, admit they've screwed up by admitting repeated delays.
You don't admit messing up and delaying something you [edit] don't think you need.
Why do they need to be there?
I'd rather the Government do the stuff it needs to be doing, like ensuring buildings don't fall on kids, reforms to boost aspiration and the economy than dicking around with this nonsense.
Just recognise European standards as equivalent to our own, even if they're not the same, and wave them through. No problems with that.
The point is - the Government themselves plainly think Brexit is not a done deal, whatevery they claim in public. You may do so, but HMG seem to beg to differ from you. I can't possibly speculate on the relative intelligences involved.
Gillian Keegan's husband, Michael Keegan, is a crown representative to the Cabinet Office, managing cross-government relationships with BAE Systems as a strategic supplier to the Government.
He was also for 12 years from 2006 a senior executive at Fujitsu, ending up as CEO and Head of Technology Product Business, having previously spent some time working at the Post Office.
Perhaps it's just me but a senior executive from a company intimately involved in the worst miscarriage of justice in English history and one of the biggest IT fuck-ups ever would not be on my short list of persons seeking to manage relationships with anyone, let alone a strategic defence supplier.
Why Fujitsu is still getting government contracts is a mystery…
I thin the paragraphs preceding that last sentence go some way to providing the solution to that mystery.
And is it a chummy spivocracy, or a spivvy chumocracy ? Or just a plain spivocracy.
I have read that Blair put pressure on the Post Office to continue with Horizon even when its faults were first noticed.
Arthur Andersen were kicked out of government work because of the De Lorean fiasco. But here Fujitsu fuck up so badly that people commit suicide and yet they sail merrily on.
The Post Office offers an 18% bonus to lawyers joining it to work on the Horizon inquiry despite previously publicly saying that no bonuses would be paid for inquiry work.
The bare faced lying is bad enough. The gigantic fuck you to the rest of us is even worse.
Why aren't people angry about this? I have recently tackled 2 Tory MPs who I met (they were out meeting voters) about precisely this just so that they know that someone is bothered about this stuff, even though none of this affects me personally.
It's not fair to blame GK for any of this. But since when has politics been fair?
A scape goat is going to need to be sacrificed soon, to take the heat off Rishi.
It will be bad news for Labour and the Opposition parties if Concrete Crisis brings down Rishi Sunak. A replacement as PM and HomeSec from moderate wing the party (Hunt PM, Penny HomSec) and 12 months talking about tackling unfair privilege in country today and being a government of aspiration and reform would save 50-100 Tory seats imo.
It’s funny how Concrete Crisis can work out so good for the Tories, if it helps them replace Sunak.
Remainer Hunt replacing Leaver Sunak as Tory leader and PM guarantees a doubling of the RefUK vote and risks near wipeout for the Tories
This one post from you sums up your whole mistake right now HY.
In this electoral situation you arguing Tories need to be Reform and Brexit fixated.
I am explained the exact opposite to you, a position you should adopt. Chasing Grey Wall, Brexit voter and Reform voter gets you 28% tops at next General Election. You are actively ushering in a political sea change by decimating your return of MPs.
50-100 MPs can be saved, a far better Proportion of vote by going in the opposite direction. So many leave voters want a sane, convincing safe pair of hands PM right now, reform minded voters want a Tory HomSec who can get a grip, and there are millions of voters you are just handing to Labour, who would be just as happy to keep in an aspirational Tory government intent on reform.
You are misreading the political mood of the country. The Tories can be in a much better place switching to aspiration and reform, rather than chase UKIP and Reform voters.
Completely agreed!
Brexit is done, finished with. Anyone still obsessing over it, either way, is an absolute loon and should be disgarded.
What matters is aspiration and reform.
What matters more is that the Tories have abandoned aspiration and reform.
Anyone who regards Brexit as finished at a time when major customs procedures have to be established, with unknown effects still to be seen, isn't showing the most elevated critical faculty, on the other hand.
Why?
The procedures don't have to be established, that's kind of the point of being an independent, sovereign nation - we choose what procedures we have in place, nobody else.
If the procedures don't make sense for us, then we shouldn't have them.
They do need to be there. HMG admits that. They also, effectively, admit they've screwed up by admitting repeated delays.
You don't admit messing up and delaying something you [edit] don't think you need.
Why do they need to be there?
I'd rather the Government do the stuff it needs to be doing, like ensuring buildings don't fall on kids, reforms to boost aspiration and the economy than dicking around with this nonsense.
Just recognise European standards as equivalent to our own, even if they're not the same, and wave them through. No problems with that.
The point is - the Government themselves plainly think Brexit is not a done deal, whatevery they claim in public. You may do so, but HMG seem to beg to differ from you. I can't possibly speculate on the relative intelligences involved.
Given the track record of this Government, why would you believe them if they say there's stuff to be done?
Starmer should just come in with his own priorities, not get caught up with Brexit BS.
What is being objected to here and whether it was or was not age appropriate I cannot say. But the idea that the age of the child should not be taken into account when deciding on content and what is told to them and how does not automatically make one a bigot.
This is the context.
A primary school that taught pupils about homosexuality as part of a programme to challenge homophobia has stopped the lessons after hundreds of children were withdrawn by parents in protest.
Parkfield community school in Saltley, Birmingham, has been the scene of weekly protests over the lessons, which parents claim are promoting gay and transgender lifestyles.
In a letter to parents, the school said: “Up to the end of this term, we will not be delivering any No Outsiders lessons in our long-term year curriculum plan, as this half term has already been blocked for religious education (RE). Equality assemblies will continue as normal and our welcoming No Outsiders ethos will be there for all.”
On Friday about 600 Muslim children, aged between four and 11, were withdrawn from the school for the day, parents said. The school would not confirm the number.
The school made clear that it had never intended to continue the No Outsiders lessons this half term and confirmed that the lessons would resume only after a full consultation with every parent.
Last month, the Guardian reported that the assistant headteacher of the school was forced to defend the lessons after 400 predominantly Muslim parents signed a petition calling for them to be dropped from the curriculum.
Andrew Moffat, who was awarded an MBE for his work in equality education, said he was threatened and targeted via a leaflet campaign after the school piloted the No Outsiders programme. Its ethos is to promote LGBT equality and challenge homophobia in primary schools.
Moffat, the author of Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools who is currently shortlisted for a world’s best teacher award, resigned from another primary school – Chilwell Croft academy, also in Birmingham – after a similar dispute with Muslim and Christian parents.
Parents have been protesting outside the Saltley school, which is rated as outstanding by Ofsted. At one protest they held signs that read “say no to promoting of homosexuality and LGBT ways of life to our children”, “stop exploiting children’s innocence”, and “education not indoctrination”.
Is homophobia in Primary Schools a problem then? Is it a problem bug enough that it needs regular "equalities assemblies"? This looks to me very much like a solution in search of a problem.
What is being objected to here and whether it was or was not age appropriate I cannot say. But the idea that the age of the child should not be taken into account when deciding on content and what is told to them and how does not automatically make one a bigot.
This is the context.
A primary school that taught pupils about homosexuality as part of a programme to challenge homophobia has stopped the lessons after hundreds of children were withdrawn by parents in protest.
Parkfield community school in Saltley, Birmingham, has been the scene of weekly protests over the lessons, which parents claim are promoting gay and transgender lifestyles.
In a letter to parents, the school said: “Up to the end of this term, we will not be delivering any No Outsiders lessons in our long-term year curriculum plan, as this half term has already been blocked for religious education (RE). Equality assemblies will continue as normal and our welcoming No Outsiders ethos will be there for all.”
On Friday about 600 Muslim children, aged between four and 11, were withdrawn from the school for the day, parents said. The school would not confirm the number.
The school made clear that it had never intended to continue the No Outsiders lessons this half term and confirmed that the lessons would resume only after a full consultation with every parent.
Last month, the Guardian reported that the assistant headteacher of the school was forced to defend the lessons after 400 predominantly Muslim parents signed a petition calling for them to be dropped from the curriculum.
Andrew Moffat, who was awarded an MBE for his work in equality education, said he was threatened and targeted via a leaflet campaign after the school piloted the No Outsiders programme. Its ethos is to promote LGBT equality and challenge homophobia in primary schools.
Moffat, the author of Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools who is currently shortlisted for a world’s best teacher award, resigned from another primary school – Chilwell Croft academy, also in Birmingham – after a similar dispute with Muslim and Christian parents.
Parents have been protesting outside the Saltley school, which is rated as outstanding by Ofsted. At one protest they held signs that read “say no to promoting of homosexuality and LGBT ways of life to our children”, “stop exploiting children’s innocence”, and “education not indoctrination”.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Ah, but I'm sure HYUFD will point out it's "really" 39% for Mr Sunak if one ignores the DKs. (Though that also puts SKS on 61%.)
Isn't the normal way to add don't know's to ones preferred outcome? So if don't know's are actually all shy Sunak supporters then he's ahead of Starmer by 54-46..., or Starmer is ahead of Sunak by 71-29.
Gillian Keegan's husband, Michael Keegan, is a crown representative to the Cabinet Office, managing cross-government relationships with BAE Systems as a strategic supplier to the Government.
He was also for 12 years from 2006 a senior executive at Fujitsu, ending up as CEO and Head of Technology Product Business, having previously spent some time working at the Post Office.
Perhaps it's just me but a senior executive from a company intimately involved in the worst miscarriage of justice in English history and one of the biggest IT fuck-ups ever would not be on my short list of persons seeking to manage relationships with anyone, let alone a strategic defence supplier.
Why Fujitsu is still getting government contracts is a mystery…
I thin the paragraphs preceding that last sentence go some way to providing the solution to that mystery.
And is it a chummy spivocracy, or a spivvy chumocracy ? Or just a plain spivocracy.
I have read that Blair put pressure on the Post Office to continue with Horizon even when its faults were first noticed.
Arthur Andersen were kicked out of government work because of the De Lorean fiasco. But here Fujitsu fuck up so badly that people commit suicide and yet they sail merrily on.
The Post Office offers an 18% bonus to lawyers joining it to work on the Horizon inquiry despite previously publicly saying that no bonuses would be paid for inquiry work.
The bare faced lying is bad enough. The gigantic fuck you to the rest of us is even worse.
Why aren't people angry about this? I have recently tackled 2 Tory MPs who I met (they were out meeting voters) about precisely this just so that they know that someone is bothered about this stuff, even though none of this affects me personally.
Arthur Anderson were back the moment the government changed.
Various actors in the permanent structure of government write memos decrying the "short sightedness" of not using them.
In a completely, utterly and totally unrelated mater there was a story about a consultancy, {redacted for OGH} that was caught running a ledger of people who had handled contract competitions with them. Those who had granted them the contracts got pluses, those who award to others got minuses.
The ledger was used to give people with lots of pluses really, really nice jobs with said consultancy. We are talking high 6 figures + bonus + stuff.
Is homophobia in Primary Schools a problem then? Is it a problem bug enough that it needs regular "equalities assemblies"? This looks to me very much like a solution in search of a problem.
Yes, I come from a community where homophobia is more prevalent.
It needs to be challenged, I was fortunate my parents believed in equality for everybody. As my father put it, if Allah hated homosexualty then he would stop making homosexuals.
I am very proud of the fact I've been best man/best bitch at several same sex marriages.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Gillian Keegan's husband, Michael Keegan, is a crown representative to the Cabinet Office, managing cross-government relationships with BAE Systems as a strategic supplier to the Government.
He was also for 12 years from 2006 a senior executive at Fujitsu, ending up as CEO and Head of Technology Product Business, having previously spent some time working at the Post Office.
Perhaps it's just me but a senior executive from a company intimately involved in the worst miscarriage of justice in English history and one of the biggest IT fuck-ups ever would not be on my short list of persons seeking to manage relationships with anyone, let alone a strategic defence supplier.
Why Fujitsu is still getting government contracts is a mystery…
I thin the paragraphs preceding that last sentence go some way to providing the solution to that mystery.
And is it a chummy spivocracy, or a spivvy chumocracy ? Or just a plain spivocracy.
I have read that Blair put pressure on the Post Office to continue with Horizon even when its faults were first noticed.
Arthur Andersen were kicked out of government work because of the De Lorean fiasco. But here Fujitsu fuck up so badly that people commit suicide and yet they sail merrily on.
The Post Office offers an 18% bonus to lawyers joining it to work on the Horizon inquiry despite previously publicly saying that no bonuses would be paid for inquiry work.
The bare faced lying is bad enough. The gigantic fuck you to the rest of us is even worse.
Why aren't people angry about this? I have recently tackled 2 Tory MPs who I met (they were out meeting voters) about precisely this just so that they know that someone is bothered about this stuff, even though none of this affects me personally.
I suspect the reason why the Post Office is offering bonus to lawyers willing to defend them is because even lawyers have some moral standards and can't defend the completely indefensible...
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Most cash tills are very technology dependent these days. And if the interwebs are down, good luck getting the bank to take cash in.
Maybe Corbyn peaked too early? What sort of reception would he get now with radical, left wing policies after the last few years we've had? Water companies, energy companies, banks, rail companies all ripping the arse out of the public. It might have got him over the line today.
Maybe Corbyn peaked too early? What sort of reception would he get now with radical, left wing policies after the last few years we've had? Water companies, energy companies, banks, rail companies all ripping the arse out of the public. It might have got him over the line today.
He'd fuck things up over say Ukraine like he did with the Salisbury poisonings.
The latter was when he went from being seen as the Magic Grandpa to the at best naive old Trot to the worst view that he was a Britain hating Trot.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
There was a power outage in Newark North Gate retail park today. Me and the Mrs were in Next getting some stuff for my lad. Next couldn't sell anything for an hour after power was restored as their "payment systems wouldn't connect". They lost an hours worth of sakes, and the shop was busy. Mind you, they couldn't take cash either!
Maybe Corbyn peaked too early? What sort of reception would he get now with radical, left wing policies after the last few years we've had? Water companies, energy companies, banks, rail companies all ripping the arse out of the public. It might have got him over the line today.
Corbyn's problem wasn't his timing, but his many manifest failures as a person and a leader.
He faced the most divided government for many decades, and was unable to take advantage as leader of the opposition.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Fake news.
I was left high and dry in Southeast Europe recently because the only ATM in the resort I was staying in had conked out, and the restaurant I was eating in took only cash (like lots of the places there, it was a real step back in time). It was a right palaver, which required me to ask a taxi to park illegally at the next resort while I literally legged it in 30c heat to another cashpoint. Cash is an antiquated system that – ironically – relies far too heavily on machines.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Most cash tills are very technology dependent these days. And if the interwebs are down, good luck getting the bank to take cash in.
Indeed, cash relies much more on machines than cashless, ironically.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
All this is so true. I am amazed that the Cumberland coast ice cream sellers managed to complete these complex transactions with me on Saturday, including right change and seven different ice creams. The local butcher managed the same feat on the same day as well as making the finest pork and apple sausages on the planet.
There is a Chinese in Cumberland, remaining nameless, whose throughput must be immense but only take cash and no other form of payment; 50 yards away is the cash machine outside a local building society branch (all the banks have gone) which does a good trade in tenners and 20s. (And into which, see above, you can still nip in with your passbook.)
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Most cash tills are very technology dependent these days. And if the interwebs are down, good luck getting the bank to take cash in.
Indeed, cash relies much more on machines than cashless, ironically.
Nonsense.
Cashless depends on machines absolutely. Cash doesn't.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Most cash tills are very technology dependent these days. And if the interwebs are down, good luck getting the bank to take cash in.
I've never had anyone unable to takemy cash because of a blip. And I'm not denying, by the way, that electronic payments have lots of advantages. I just find the urge to dismiss cash entirely a little odd. FWIW, I'm often surprised by the number of people at the supermarket who are ahead of you in the queue and who wave you past because they're waiting for one of the self-checkouts which take cash. I have almost never used cash in the supermarket, but it still seems 50/50 in Tesco in South Manchester.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Most cash tills are very technology dependent these days. And if the interwebs are down, good luck getting the bank to take cash in.
I've never had anyone unable to takemy cash because of a blip. And I'm not denying, by the way, that electronic payments have lots of advantages. I just find the urge to dismiss cash entirely a little odd. FWIW, I'm often surprised by the number of people at the supermarket who are ahead of you in the queue and who wave you past because they're waiting for one of the self-checkouts which take cash. I have almost never used cash in the supermarket, but it still seems 50/50 in Tesco in South Manchester.
LOL. You've never tried to pay someone who has run out of change?
It looks like the Great House Price Slide is gathering pace. Today has seen quite a few of the houses at the top end of our budget all getting reduced on RightMove/Zoopla, some by 15%. We actually nearly put an offer on one of them last month that wasn't far off what it's up for now but it was just too close to a busy, noisy road. Glad we didn't now! It's made me even more convinced to wait a while longer. I feel like a vulture waiting for a wildebeest to kark it, but them's the breaks.
Similar story here at chateau PtP.
We nearly bought at the top of the market, twice. Feels like we dodged a couple of bullets, thanks to intransigent vendors.
We are in no rush to move now. Feels like this market has a long way to go.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Fake news.
I was left high and dry in Southeast Europe recently because the only ATM in the resort I was staying in had conked out, and the restaurant I was eating in took only cash (like lots of the places there, it was a real step back in time). It was a right palaver, which required me to ask a taxi to park illegally at the next resort while I literally legged it in 30c heat to another cashpoint. Cash is an antiquated system that – ironically – relies far too heavily on machines.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Most cash tills are very technology dependent these days. And if the interwebs are down, good luck getting the bank to take cash in.
Indeed, cash relies much more on machines than cashless, ironically.
Nonsense.
Cashless depends on machines absolutely. Cash doesn't.
They both rely on machines in different ways. No ATMs, no bank branches (which require computers), no cash.
I had lots of problems with cash-only businesses on holiday recently, and zero with the ones that took cards.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Absolutely – neither you nor probably the majority of the population. Yet the PB Cash Nostalgics will seemingly leave no stone unturned in backing lost causes.
I admit I almost entirely use card or bank transfer to pay these days, but I don't understand why people are outraged by other people using cash and want to deny them the option to do so.
Not sure why you are aiming that at me? I have said repeatedly that I wouldn't ban cash.
It is the PB Cash Fetishists that want to do the banning – many on here regularly call for cashless retail to be banned (despite said retailers and their customers being happy with it).
Maybe slightly disingenuous here? By definition "cashless retail" is where people are denied the option to use cash.
As someone who pays mostly by card I don't want cashless retail, ie to prevent other people paying by cash if they wish.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Absolutely – neither you nor probably the majority of the population. Yet the PB Cash Nostalgics will seemingly leave no stone unturned in backing lost causes.
I admit I almost entirely use card or bank transfer to pay these days, but I don't understand why people are outraged by other people using cash and want to deny them the option to do so.
Not sure why you are aiming that at me? I have said repeatedly that I wouldn't ban cash.
It is the PB Cash Fetishists that want to do the banning – many on here regularly call for cashless retail to be banned (despite said retailers and their customers being happy with it).
Maybe slightly disingenuous here? By definition "cashless retail" is where people are denied the option to use cash.
They are also 'denied' the option to pay with luncheon vouchers or sexual favours. The point is the business and their customers are happy with those restrictions.
What is being objected to here and whether it was or was not age appropriate I cannot say. But the idea that the age of the child should not be taken into account when deciding on content and what is told to them and how does not automatically make one a bigot.
This is the context.
A primary school that taught pupils about homosexuality as part of a programme to challenge homophobia has stopped the lessons after hundreds of children were withdrawn by parents in protest.
Parkfield community school in Saltley, Birmingham, has been the scene of weekly protests over the lessons, which parents claim are promoting gay and transgender lifestyles.
In a letter to parents, the school said: “Up to the end of this term, we will not be delivering any No Outsiders lessons in our long-term year curriculum plan, as this half term has already been blocked for religious education (RE). Equality assemblies will continue as normal and our welcoming No Outsiders ethos will be there for all.”
On Friday about 600 Muslim children, aged between four and 11, were withdrawn from the school for the day, parents said. The school would not confirm the number.
The school made clear that it had never intended to continue the No Outsiders lessons this half term and confirmed that the lessons would resume only after a full consultation with every parent.
Last month, the Guardian reported that the assistant headteacher of the school was forced to defend the lessons after 400 predominantly Muslim parents signed a petition calling for them to be dropped from the curriculum.
Andrew Moffat, who was awarded an MBE for his work in equality education, said he was threatened and targeted via a leaflet campaign after the school piloted the No Outsiders programme. Its ethos is to promote LGBT equality and challenge homophobia in primary schools.
Moffat, the author of Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools who is currently shortlisted for a world’s best teacher award, resigned from another primary school – Chilwell Croft academy, also in Birmingham – after a similar dispute with Muslim and Christian parents.
Parents have been protesting outside the Saltley school, which is rated as outstanding by Ofsted. At one protest they held signs that read “say no to promoting of homosexuality and LGBT ways of life to our children”, “stop exploiting children’s innocence”, and “education not indoctrination”.
Is homophobia in Primary Schools a problem then? Is it a problem bug enough that it needs regular "equalities assemblies"? This looks to me very much like a solution in search of a problem.
IMV kids, when born, don't particularly have any biases. You see young babies, toddlers and kids play with each other regardless of gender, colour, religion, or even disability. Therefore biases and prejudices such as homophobia are learnt. So questions are *when* and *where* are they learnt?
I daresay we all on PB are *excellent* people, who taught, or will teach, our kids all about different people from ourselves. Many kids don't have such excellent parents; and instead have parents who pass on all sorts of nastiness, such as homophobia, racism, sexism, etc.
I'd argue the sooner these prejudices are counteracted, the better. And that's a job that can best be done at school.
Ludlow it is! A foaming pint of virtual perry for @Carnyx and a faux thimble of Ludlow gin for @boulay
What a stunning little town
My hotel in the first pic is Dinham Weir House
Here’s my room in case anyone is scared that I’m suffering unduly on my Official Gazette Welsh Marches Road Trip
An ex’s father owned a few of the properties in your photos - went there a few times, very pretty but also can be a bit lively - first time I had seen a punch up in a pub during an afternoon between fans of the same team - England. I also had some ridiculously good pie of the pork pie type there. I hope it’s still a food centre.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Fake news.
I was left high and dry in Southeast Europe recently because the only ATM in the resort I was staying in had conked out, and the restaurant I was eating in took only cash (like lots of the places there, it was a real step back in time). It was a right palaver, which required me to ask a taxi to park illegally at the next resort while I literally legged it in 30c heat to another cashpoint. Cash is an antiquated system that – ironically – relies far too heavily on machines.
I would say this isn't a failure of cash so much as of your idioyncratic refusal to carry it up until the point you need it. If somewhere only took card payments but I didn't have a card so had to go and open an account and wait 3-6 days for the card to arrive it would be jolly inconvenient too - but it wouldn't really demonstrate that electronic payments were intrinsically problematic, just that I'd refused to engage with the technology.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Fake news.
I was left high and dry in Southeast Europe recently because the only ATM in the resort I was staying in had conked out, and the restaurant I was eating in took only cash (like lots of the places there, it was a real step back in time). It was a right palaver, which required me to ask a taxi to park illegally at the next resort while I literally legged it in 30c heat to another cashpoint. Cash is an antiquated system that – ironically – relies far too heavily on machines.
You want to ban cash based retail when the business and their customers are happy with those restrictions?
What is being objected to here and whether it was or was not age appropriate I cannot say. But the idea that the age of the child should not be taken into account when deciding on content and what is told to them and how does not automatically make one a bigot.
This is the context.
A primary school that taught pupils about homosexuality as part of a programme to challenge homophobia has stopped the lessons after hundreds of children were withdrawn by parents in protest.
Parkfield community school in Saltley, Birmingham, has been the scene of weekly protests over the lessons, which parents claim are promoting gay and transgender lifestyles.
In a letter to parents, the school said: “Up to the end of this term, we will not be delivering any No Outsiders lessons in our long-term year curriculum plan, as this half term has already been blocked for religious education (RE). Equality assemblies will continue as normal and our welcoming No Outsiders ethos will be there for all.”
On Friday about 600 Muslim children, aged between four and 11, were withdrawn from the school for the day, parents said. The school would not confirm the number.
The school made clear that it had never intended to continue the No Outsiders lessons this half term and confirmed that the lessons would resume only after a full consultation with every parent.
Last month, the Guardian reported that the assistant headteacher of the school was forced to defend the lessons after 400 predominantly Muslim parents signed a petition calling for them to be dropped from the curriculum.
Andrew Moffat, who was awarded an MBE for his work in equality education, said he was threatened and targeted via a leaflet campaign after the school piloted the No Outsiders programme. Its ethos is to promote LGBT equality and challenge homophobia in primary schools.
Moffat, the author of Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools who is currently shortlisted for a world’s best teacher award, resigned from another primary school – Chilwell Croft academy, also in Birmingham – after a similar dispute with Muslim and Christian parents.
Parents have been protesting outside the Saltley school, which is rated as outstanding by Ofsted. At one protest they held signs that read “say no to promoting of homosexuality and LGBT ways of life to our children”, “stop exploiting children’s innocence”, and “education not indoctrination”.
Is homophobia in Primary Schools a problem then? Is it a problem bug enough that it needs regular "equalities assemblies"? This looks to me very much like a solution in search of a problem.
The parental reaction seems to illustrate the problem perfectly.
Crikey. It’s not bourgeois. Reminds me of Hereford 30-40 years ago. Snaggle toothed farmers and their tattooed wives/dogs in front of 13th century pubs
I think I have some sympathy for Gillian Keegan. It isn't altogether her fault.
The DfE, none at all. If they hadn't made a botched reform to academy chains, grossly underfunded them and forced them to pursue expensive short term goals at the expense of longer term sustainability than we might not be in this mess to start with.
You can't tell somebody they're doing a good job and/or getting a grip on something when they're clearly not doing so.
What is being objected to here and whether it was or was not age appropriate I cannot say. But the idea that the age of the child should not be taken into account when deciding on content and what is told to them and how does not automatically make one a bigot.
This is the context.
A primary school that taught pupils about homosexuality as part of a programme to challenge homophobia has stopped the lessons after hundreds of children were withdrawn by parents in protest.
Parkfield community school in Saltley, Birmingham, has been the scene of weekly protests over the lessons, which parents claim are promoting gay and transgender lifestyles.
In a letter to parents, the school said: “Up to the end of this term, we will not be delivering any No Outsiders lessons in our long-term year curriculum plan, as this half term has already been blocked for religious education (RE). Equality assemblies will continue as normal and our welcoming No Outsiders ethos will be there for all.”
On Friday about 600 Muslim children, aged between four and 11, were withdrawn from the school for the day, parents said. The school would not confirm the number.
The school made clear that it had never intended to continue the No Outsiders lessons this half term and confirmed that the lessons would resume only after a full consultation with every parent.
Last month, the Guardian reported that the assistant headteacher of the school was forced to defend the lessons after 400 predominantly Muslim parents signed a petition calling for them to be dropped from the curriculum.
Andrew Moffat, who was awarded an MBE for his work in equality education, said he was threatened and targeted via a leaflet campaign after the school piloted the No Outsiders programme. Its ethos is to promote LGBT equality and challenge homophobia in primary schools.
Moffat, the author of Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools who is currently shortlisted for a world’s best teacher award, resigned from another primary school – Chilwell Croft academy, also in Birmingham – after a similar dispute with Muslim and Christian parents.
Parents have been protesting outside the Saltley school, which is rated as outstanding by Ofsted. At one protest they held signs that read “say no to promoting of homosexuality and LGBT ways of life to our children”, “stop exploiting children’s innocence”, and “education not indoctrination”.
Is homophobia in Primary Schools a problem then? Is it a problem bug enough that it needs regular "equalities assemblies"? This looks to me very much like a solution in search of a problem.
IMV kids, when born, don't particularly have any biases. You see young babies, toddlers and kids play with each other regardless of gender, colour, religion, or even disability. Therefore biases and prejudices such as homophobia are learnt. So questions are *when* and *where* are they learnt?
I daresay we all on PB are *excellent* people, who taught, or will teach, our kids all about different people from ourselves. Many kids don't have such excellent parents; and instead have parents who pass on all sorts of nastiness, such as homophobia, racism, sexism, etc.
I'd argue the sooner these prejudices are counteracted, the better. And that's a job that can best be done at school.
And it is a job that should be started at primary school.
Education shouldn't be left until "too late", until ignorance is embedded and then education begins. Education is meant to be teaching things before they are needed, so when they are needed that foundational framework of knowledge and understanding exists.
It's not fair to blame GK for any of this. But since when has politics been fair?
A scape goat is going to need to be sacrificed soon, to take the heat off Rishi.
It will be bad news for Labour and the Opposition parties if Concrete Crisis brings down Rishi Sunak. A replacement as PM and HomeSec from moderate wing the party (Hunt PM, Penny HomSec) and 12 months talking about tackling unfair privilege in country today and being a government of aspiration and reform would save 50-100 Tory seats imo.
It’s funny how Concrete Crisis can work out so good for the Tories, if it helps them replace Sunak.
Remainer Hunt replacing Leaver Sunak as Tory leader and PM guarantees a doubling of the RefUK vote and risks near wipeout for the Tories
This one post from you sums up your whole mistake right now HY.
In this electoral situation you arguing Tories need to be Reform and Brexit fixated.
I am explained the exact opposite to you, a position you should adopt. Chasing Grey Wall, Brexit voter and Reform voter gets you 28% tops at next General Election. You are actively ushering in a political sea change by decimating your return of MPs.
50-100 MPs can be saved, a far better Proportion of vote by going in the opposite direction. So many leave voters want a sane, convincing safe pair of hands PM right now, reform minded voters want a Tory HomSec who can get a grip, and there are millions of voters you are just handing to Labour, who would be just as happy to keep in an aspirational Tory government intent on reform.
You are misreading the political mood of the country. The Tories can be in a much better place switching to aspiration and reform, rather than chase UKIP and Reform voters.
Hunt wouldn't win back any Labour or LD voters, he would however see further losses from the Tories to RefUK
I think I have some sympathy for Gillian Keegan. It isn't altogether her fault.
The DfE, none at all. If they hadn't made a botched reform to academy chains, grossly underfunded them and forced them to pursue expensive short term goals at the expense of longer term sustainability than we might not be in this mess to start with.
You can't tell somebody they're doing a good job and/or getting a grip on something when they're clearly not doing so.
I have just listened to Gillian Keegan at the dispatch box and frankly, her knowledge of the subject, and detail was very impressive
Indeed, while not excusing her off camera rant, anyone could see why she was so frustrated with so many who frankly do not have her grasp of the subject
It is the first time I have heard her and considering the pressure she is under her performance was very good
Ludlow it is! A foaming pint of virtual perry for @Carnyx and a faux thimble of Ludlow gin for @boulay
What a stunning little town
My hotel in the first pic is Dinham Weir House
Here’s my room in case anyone is scared that I’m suffering unduly on my Official Gazette Welsh Marches Road Trip
We were in Ludlow for a weekend a month ago. It's alright - nothing to write home about though.
It’s architecturally exquisite! A completely unharmed 13th-19th century English market town with the Shropshire hills at the end of every road
John Betjeman called it the “prettiest town in England”
However it definitely feels a lot poorer than somewhere like Hereford. Indeed, as I say, it reminds me of Hereford three decades ago - before it was gentrified
Crikey. It’s not bourgeois. Reminds me of Hereford 30-40 years ago. Snaggle toothed farmers and their tattooed wives/dogs in front of 13th century pubs
Does it still have the livestock market by the railway station?
I think I have some sympathy for Gillian Keegan. It isn't altogether her fault.
The DfE, none at all. If they hadn't made a botched reform to academy chains, grossly underfunded them and forced them to pursue expensive short term goals at the expense of longer term sustainability than we might not be in this mess to start with.
You can't tell somebody they're doing a good job and/or getting a grip on something when they're clearly not doing so.
I have just listened to Gillian Keegan at the dispatch box and frankly, her knowledge of the subject, and detail was very impressive
Indeed, while not excusing her off camera rant, anyone could see why she was so frustrated with so many who frankly do not have her grasp of the subject
It is the first time I have heard her and considering the pressure she is under her performance was very good
No doubt you were similarly gracious when Gordon Brown was campaigning for an election shortly after the biggest financial collapse since 1929.
Crikey. It’s not bourgeois. Reminds me of Hereford 30-40 years ago. Snaggle toothed farmers and their tattooed wives/dogs in front of 13th century pubs
Yes it used to have 3 michelin starred restaurants but the plague put paid to that, however I believe the competition drove the over all quality of food in town upwards.
Ludlow it is! A foaming pint of virtual perry for @Carnyx and a faux thimble of Ludlow gin for @boulay
What a stunning little town
My hotel in the first pic is Dinham Weir House
Here’s my room in case anyone is scared that I’m suffering unduly on my Official Gazette Welsh Marches Road Trip
An ex’s father owned a few of the properties in your photos - went there a few times, very pretty but also can be a bit lively - first time I had seen a punch up in a pub during an afternoon between fans of the same team - England. I also had some ridiculously good pie of the pork pie type there. I hope it’s still a food centre.
It hasn’t changed - is my first impression. Definitely the sort of town you can still get in a fight almost by yourself, on a sleepy Wednesday afternoon
I think I have some sympathy for Gillian Keegan. It isn't altogether her fault.
The DfE, none at all. If they hadn't made a botched reform to academy chains, grossly underfunded them and forced them to pursue expensive short term goals at the expense of longer term sustainability than we might not be in this mess to start with.
You can't tell somebody they're doing a good job and/or getting a grip on something when they're clearly not doing so.
I have just listened to Gillian Keegan at the dispatch box and frankly, her knowledge of the subject, and detail was very impressive
Indeed, while not excusing her off camera rant, anyone could see why she was so frustrated with so many who frankly do not have her grasp of the subject
It is the first time I have heard her and considering the pressure she is under her performance was very good
No doubt you were similarly gracious when Gordon Brown was campaigning for an election shortly after the biggest financial collapse since 1929.
"collapse" a word presumably deliberately selected?
It's not fair to blame GK for any of this. But since when has politics been fair?
A scape goat is going to need to be sacrificed soon, to take the heat off Rishi.
It will be bad news for Labour and the Opposition parties if Concrete Crisis brings down Rishi Sunak. A replacement as PM and HomeSec from moderate wing the party (Hunt PM, Penny HomSec) and 12 months talking about tackling unfair privilege in country today and being a government of aspiration and reform would save 50-100 Tory seats imo.
It’s funny how Concrete Crisis can work out so good for the Tories, if it helps them replace Sunak.
Remainer Hunt replacing Leaver Sunak as Tory leader and PM guarantees a doubling of the RefUK vote and risks near wipeout for the Tories
This one post from you sums up your whole mistake right now HY.
In this electoral situation you arguing Tories need to be Reform and Brexit fixated.
I am explained the exact opposite to you, a position you should adopt. Chasing Grey Wall, Brexit voter and Reform voter gets you 28% tops at next General Election. You are actively ushering in a political sea change by decimating your return of MPs.
50-100 MPs can be saved, a far better Proportion of vote by going in the opposite direction. So many leave voters want a sane, convincing safe pair of hands PM right now, reform minded voters want a Tory HomSec who can get a grip, and there are millions of voters you are just handing to Labour, who would be just as happy to keep in an aspirational Tory government intent on reform.
You are misreading the political mood of the country. The Tories can be in a much better place switching to aspiration and reform, rather than chase UKIP and Reform voters.
Hunt wouldn't win back any Labour or LD voters, he would however see further losses from the Tories to RefUK
@MoonRabbit is correct in her observations, not least your hopes that a move to the right will revitalise the conservative party
Far from it, it will marginalise them into as much as cult as are Corbyn followers
Ludlow it is! A foaming pint of virtual perry for @Carnyx and a faux thimble of Ludlow gin for @boulay
What a stunning little town
My hotel in the first pic is Dinham Weir House
Here’s my room in case anyone is scared that I’m suffering unduly on my Official Gazette Welsh Marches Road Trip
We were in Ludlow for a weekend a month ago. It's alright - nothing to write home about though.
No no no no no. Ludlow is a brilliant place. It is, as Jonathan Meades once commented back in the 1990s (and still true today) the closest you will get in Britain to provincial France. A town that people live in the centre of, with its own kind of food and drink autarchy, which inhabitants of the surrounding villages all visit to shop in the actual centre, where there's a more porous boundary between the classes, surrounded by unspoilt and really rather lovely scenery.
To me it's like a less-alternative, more inland version of Totnes which is another of my favourite 2 or 3 towns.
Ludlow it is! A foaming pint of virtual perry for @Carnyx and a faux thimble of Ludlow gin for @boulay
What a stunning little town
My hotel in the first pic is Dinham Weir House
Here’s my room in case anyone is scared that I’m suffering unduly on my Official Gazette Welsh Marches Road Trip
We were in Ludlow for a weekend a month ago. It's alright - nothing to write home about though.
It’s architecturally exquisite! A completely unharmed 13th-19th century English market town with the Shropshire hills at the end of every road
John Betjeman called it the “prettiest town in England”
However it definitely feels a lot poorer than somewhere like Hereford. Indeed, as I say, it reminds me of Hereford three decades ago - before it was gentrified
I suspect its more to do with discreet wealth. The editors of the Telegraph , Economist and Spectator ( I think) all live nearby
Ludlow it is! A foaming pint of virtual perry for @Carnyx and a faux thimble of Ludlow gin for @boulay
What a stunning little town
My hotel in the first pic is Dinham Weir House
Here’s my room in case anyone is scared that I’m suffering unduly on my Official Gazette Welsh Marches Road Trip
An ex’s father owned a few of the properties in your photos - went there a few times, very pretty but also can be a bit lively - first time I had seen a punch up in a pub during an afternoon between fans of the same team - England. I also had some ridiculously good pie of the pork pie type there. I hope it’s still a food centre.
It hasn’t changed - is my first impression. Definitely the sort of town you can still get in a fight almost by yourself, on a sleepy Wednesday afternoon
Every chap there looked like they could step right into Henry V’s army on the eve of Agincourt - proper country toughs but looked like medieval people rather than modern youths. I know that won’t make sense but there is something about the locals that’s different to an outsider.
I think I have some sympathy for Gillian Keegan. It isn't altogether her fault.
The DfE, none at all. If they hadn't made a botched reform to academy chains, grossly underfunded them and forced them to pursue expensive short term goals at the expense of longer term sustainability than we might not be in this mess to start with.
You can't tell somebody they're doing a good job and/or getting a grip on something when they're clearly not doing so.
I have just listened to Gillian Keegan at the dispatch box and frankly, her knowledge of the subject, and detail was very impressive
Indeed, while not excusing her off camera rant, anyone could see why she was so frustrated with so many who frankly do not have her grasp of the subject
It is the first time I have heard her and considering the pressure she is under her performance was very good
No doubt you were similarly gracious when Gordon Brown was campaigning for an election shortly after the biggest financial collapse since 1929.
What on earth has Brown got to do with this crisis, other than load PFI onto schools in his time in office
I give credit when it is due and these days it is very difficult to give credit to any conservative politician but Keegan deserves it tonight
It looks like the Great House Price Slide is gathering pace. Today has seen quite a few of the houses at the top end of our budget all getting reduced on RightMove/Zoopla, some by 15%. We actually nearly put an offer on one of them last month that wasn't far off what it's up for now but it was just too close to a busy, noisy road. Glad we didn't now! It's made me even more convinced to wait a while longer. I feel like a vulture waiting for a wildebeest to kark it, but them's the breaks.
I'm glad to see house prices coming down. IMO we need about minus 20-25% over 3-4 years.
It's been a funny few years. Had a bungalow in mum's estate probate valued at £175k in Nov 2019.
Since then suggested values have gone up to 200k and down to £175k, and buyers have played hokey-cokey.
Finally completed on the sale today at £176k sale price with a buyer who has flubbing for about 18 months.
I think I have some sympathy for Gillian Keegan. It isn't altogether her fault.
The DfE, none at all. If they hadn't made a botched reform to academy chains, grossly underfunded them and forced them to pursue expensive short term goals at the expense of longer term sustainability than we might not be in this mess to start with.
You can't tell somebody they're doing a good job and/or getting a grip on something when they're clearly not doing so.
I have just listened to Gillian Keegan at the dispatch box and frankly, her knowledge of the subject, and detail was very impressive
Indeed, while not excusing her off camera rant, anyone could see why she was so frustrated with so many who frankly do not have her grasp of the subject
It is the first time I have heard her and considering the pressure she is under her performance was very good
It wasn't much of a rant. I'd have preferred something like, 'ok so Labour are ahead in the polls, bully for them, but they still have to go to a general election and get something, and I tell you what, I'd luv it, luv it, if they fall short and lose. Again.'
In case you've not been watching, we're at the start of what could potentially be a record breaking September heatwave. Record breaking not so much for its peak temperatures but the sheer relentlessness of unseasonably warm weather.
The latest model run from the American model (GFS) this evening is the warmest of the pack, so I'll admit to a bit of bias, but here are the maximum programmed temperatures for the UK for each day from today until the 20th of September, which are usually 1-2C below the actual max:
The problem for Labour is that socially conservative Muslims and the LGBT community are both key parts of their core vote
The 'isolated spectrum parts' problem Labour usually has is less of a problem at the moment. Usually Labour relies on a very uneasy coalition of urban/north, woke, yoof, BAME, benefits junkies and public sector payroll vote. Normally this constitutes one of the top reasons for keeping them out of office. It is obvious that currently they have the support of a wide unbroken spectrum. This has been lent to them for a limited time.
The Tory appeal to the massive middling and aspirational centre of society and the small platoons of cautious and tolerant incrementalists is their long term advantage.
This historic position requires a skill, moral discipline and statecraft they have lost. They will lose until either they get it back, or Labour become even worse than the Tories - all politics is relative, and this is perfectly possible.
Comments
It's made me even more convinced to wait a while longer. I feel like a vulture waiting for a wildebeest to kark it, but them's the breaks.
The Irish government talks a good talk about its responsibilities towards refugees, but it is now turning to tented accommodation for refugees in a big way this winter, including women and children, and despite insisting that prior use of tents was only a short-term measure while it made other arrangements. However, it appears to be so unable to build more houses, that it's now going to put large numbers of refugees into tents for the duration of the wet and windy Irish winter.
https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/0901/1402964-ep-ukrainians/
Blocking big companies from government contracts is never popular in the system. There were cries of joy when Arthur Anderson were taken off the black list, where Thatcher had put them.
Arthur Andersen were kicked out of government work because of the De Lorean fiasco. But here Fujitsu fuck up so badly that people commit suicide and yet they sail merrily on.
The Post Office offers an 18% bonus to lawyers joining it to work on the Horizon inquiry despite previously publicly saying that no bonuses would be paid for inquiry work.
The bare faced lying is bad enough. The gigantic fuck you to the rest of us is even worse.
Why aren't people angry about this? I have recently tackled 2 Tory MPs who I met (they were out meeting voters) about precisely this just so that they know that someone is bothered about this stuff, even though none of this affects me personally.
Starmer leads Sunak by 17%, tying his largest ever lead over Sunak.
At this moment, which of the following do Britons think would be the better Prime Minister for the UK? (3 September)
Keir Starmer 46% (+2)
Rishi Sunak 29% (-5)
Changes +/- 27 August
https://twitter.com/RedfieldWilton/status/1698730191906889999
Starmer should just come in with his own priorities, not get caught up with Brexit BS.
Kendall is on record as backing "welfare reform", supporting the benefit cap and calling for EU migrants' benefits to be cut.
Blue Tories / Red Tories = same thing
https://www7.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2019/03/21/rendering-unto-caesar/
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Various actors in the permanent structure of government write memos decrying the "short sightedness" of not using them.
In a completely, utterly and totally unrelated mater there was a story about a consultancy, {redacted for OGH} that was caught running a ledger of people who had handled contract competitions with them. Those who had granted them the contracts got pluses, those who award to others got minuses.
The ledger was used to give people with lots of pluses really, really nice jobs with said consultancy. We are talking high 6 figures + bonus + stuff.
It needs to be challenged, I was fortunate my parents believed in equality for everybody. As my father put it, if Allah hated homosexualty then he would stop making homosexuals.
I am very proud of the fact I've been best man/best bitch at several same sex marriages.
Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
The latter was when he went from being seen as the Magic Grandpa to the at best naive old Trot to the worst view that he was a Britain hating Trot.
My digs for the night
But where am I?
He faced the most divided government for many decades, and was unable to take advantage as leader of the opposition.
I was left high and dry in Southeast Europe recently because the only ATM in the resort I was staying in had conked out, and the restaurant I was eating in took only cash (like lots of the places there, it was a real step back in time). It was a right palaver, which required me to ask a taxi to park illegally at the next resort while I literally legged it in 30c heat to another cashpoint. Cash is an antiquated system that – ironically – relies far too heavily on machines.
There is a Chinese in Cumberland, remaining nameless, whose throughput must be immense but only take cash and no other form of payment; 50 yards away is the cash machine outside a local building society branch (all the banks have gone) which does a good trade in tenners and 20s. (And into which, see above, you can still nip in with your passbook.)
Cashless depends on machines absolutely. Cash doesn't.
And I'm not denying, by the way, that electronic payments have lots of advantages. I just find the urge to dismiss cash entirely a little odd.
FWIW, I'm often surprised by the number of people at the supermarket who are ahead of you in the queue and who wave you past because they're waiting for one of the self-checkouts which take cash. I have almost never used cash in the supermarket, but it still seems 50/50 in Tesco in South Manchester.
"Nandy humiliated with International Development"
Oh well first they came for the Socialists .......
We nearly bought at the top of the market, twice. Feels like we dodged a couple of bullets, thanks to intransigent vendors.
We are in no rush to move now. Feels like this market has a long way to go.
Si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more.
I had lots of problems with cash-only businesses on holiday recently, and zero with the ones that took cards.
Buy only if they're the proper ones, made by Mirabell.
EDIT: And since when were the called "Mozartballs"? Mozartkugeln bitte.
Looks not unlike Durham.
As someone who pays mostly by card I don't want cashless retail, ie to prevent other people paying by cash if they wish.
The town itself must be one of the prettiest in Britain. Just get rid of the cars!
Red Tories / Blue Tories same thing
https://twitter.com/LeftieStats/status/1698431525652517222/photo/1
But only Mirabell are allowed to sell round balls; all the other Mozart balls must have one flat side.
2023 SKS Labour don't have any core principles.
Here’s a 13th century gate just casually dropped in the exquisite townscape
2023 "we will step back from all of our core principles’
GE 2024 Vote for us we have principles
I daresay we all on PB are *excellent* people, who taught, or will teach, our kids all about different people from ourselves. Many kids don't have such excellent parents; and instead have parents who pass on all sorts of nastiness, such as homophobia, racism, sexism, etc.
I'd argue the sooner these prejudices are counteracted, the better. And that's a job that can best be done at school.
What a stunning little town
My hotel in the first pic is Dinham Weir House
Here’s my room in case anyone is scared that I’m suffering unduly on my Official Gazette Welsh Marches Road Trip
Tories are Red Tories are Blue
You can vote for either they are Tories like you.
The DfE, none at all. If they hadn't made a botched reform to academy chains, grossly underfunded them and forced them to pursue expensive short term goals at the expense of longer term sustainability than we might not be in this mess to start with.
You can't tell somebody they're doing a good job and/or getting a grip on something when they're clearly not doing so.
Education shouldn't be left until "too late", until ignorance is embedded and then education begins. Education is meant to be teaching things before they are needed, so when they are needed that foundational framework of knowledge and understanding exists.
If they were Tories I wouldnt be campaigning for them and you would be voting for them
Indeed, while not excusing her off camera rant, anyone could see why she was so frustrated with so many who frankly do not have her grasp of the subject
It is the first time I have heard her and considering the pressure she is under her performance was very good
John Betjeman called it the “prettiest town in England”
However it definitely feels a lot poorer than somewhere like Hereford. Indeed, as I say, it reminds me of Hereford three decades ago - before it was gentrified
Far from it, it will marginalise them into as much as cult as are Corbyn followers
Whats next? "Your mum?"
To me it's like a less-alternative, more inland version of Totnes which is another of my favourite 2 or 3 towns.
I give credit when it is due and these days it is very difficult to give credit to any conservative politician but Keegan deserves it tonight
It's been a funny few years. Had a bungalow in mum's estate probate valued at £175k in Nov 2019.
Since then suggested values have gone up to 200k and down to £175k, and buyers have played hokey-cokey.
Finally completed on the sale today at £176k sale price with a buyer who has flubbing for about 18 months.
The latest model run from the American model (GFS) this evening is the warmest of the pack, so I'll admit to a bit of bias, but here are the maximum programmed temperatures for the UK for each day from today until the 20th of September, which are usually 1-2C below the actual max:
28 (but actually it reached 30 today), 29. 32, 31, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 28, 25, 24, 27, 28, 30, 30.
The Tory appeal to the massive middling and aspirational centre of society and the small platoons of cautious and tolerant incrementalists is their long term advantage.
This historic position requires a skill, moral discipline and statecraft they have lost. They will lose until either they get it back, or Labour become even worse than the Tories - all politics is relative, and this is perfectly possible.